Inventive Uses of Mass Effect Fields
by flare8521
Summary: Thanks to the constant support from Shepard, Jack has come a long way since the psychopath we first met at the Purgatory. Now, with the Collectors gone and her heart laid bare but no one to take it, Jack finds comfort in a most unexpected person.
1. Ch1  StressRelief

Inventive uses of mass effect fields

Chapter 1: Stress-relief

The doors of the main elevators slid open unnoticed, allowing the woman to step into the CIC. Every time the Normandy prepared for a mass relay jump, the main decks level of activity went through the roof, with every man at his console monitoring dozens of statistics she would never understand, not that she cared. Nevertheless, most of the men would always find a moment or two to stare at her body when they didn't think she would notice. Because of course, not a single one of them would dare to cross her gaze. This time was different however. This time, nobody stared. This time, nobody sweat over their holo-displays anticipating the unbelievable acceleration and the stress it would cause on their body and the ship. This time, nobody was there at all. The dead calm of the CIC only added to the incredible tension already in the air as the Normandy began its approach to the large red mass relay. Jack wasn't sure she preferred it this way.

After staring at all the empty seats and the EDI-operated holo-displays for a minute, Jack started making her way towards the cockpit. God she hated space travel. Hated being stuck in a tiny fragile piece of metal surrounded by nothing but thousands of miles of deadly vacuum. It made her feel powerless, which was something she definitely hated even more. The fact everyone kept telling her this was one of the best ship in all space, Citadel or not, did not do much to appease her. Hell, they probably used to say the same thing about the SR1, and a fat-load of good that did when it came face-to-face with the Collectors. And now this so called new-and-improved version was about to go face the same enemies on purpose.

"This damn ship had better live up to its name" she thought. To help calm her nerves during space travels, she had ripped of small chunk of the toughest metal she could find on the ship and held it inside her left fist, constantly remolding it with her biotics. It kept her mind busy and reminded her of her true power. Some guy with an accent had tried to give her shit when he found out about the chunk. She offered to use one of his bones instead. He never came back down to her "quarters" and the beam was repaired during her next absence on a mission.

Truth be told, Jack wasn't sure why she had come up here in the first place. Maybe it was that she felt a bit useless. After all, everybody on the ship seemed to have a job except for her. The quarian, the geth, the salarian, the turian and the shady woman were all helping EDI fill the empty spaces left by the kidnapping of the entire crew while the krogan, the drell and the asari were doing some sorts of pre-combat meditations or something else just as useless to her. Had she not seen it with her own eyes, Jack would never have believed Cerberus would accept to work with so many aliens. "They must really be desperate" she thought, and then "Good for them". To her, all of them were little more than temporary co-workers. Considering the odds of survival on the mission, she didn't bother making plans for what would come after.

On the higher decks, The Cerberus puppy was making sure everybody's weapons were in absolute perfect conditions in preparation for the incoming battle. No matter how she looked at it, the ex-convict had problems figuring out that guy's use onboard. Seriously, anything he could do she could do better: Guns - from maintenance to usage, biotics, looking tough and most likely fist fighting too. Sure he had some leadership training and experience but it's not like he made any use of it. He basically seemed happy to be everyone's bitch. Give him a computer and he would probably be willing to replace that red-headed wannabe shrink as well.

Then there was the cheerleader. With the entire crew gone and nobody to order around, she was probably just trying to look important somewhere on the ship. Jack had to give it to her though, for all the pain in the ass the woman was, she had talent. Her flimsy arms probably could never handle the recoil of a real gun but Jack had had plenty of occasions on missions to see that she sure could fire a pistol, and barely ever missed her target's vital points. The same thing was true for her biotics: she could never hope to surpass the raw strength of Jack's powers, but the level of mastery she displayed with her own powers was well worth mention. This one time, she actually managed to hold in place the trigger fingers of an entire batarian commando unit long enough for Jack and Shepard to take them out even without any thermal clips left.

That's one thing the cheerleader was way better at than Jack: strategy. Fortunately, the ex-convict usually did not have much use for such fancy out-of-the-box thinking; her usual strategy simply revolved around the generous usage of biotics and shotgun shells. So far, it had served her well enough. "Too bad she's Cerberus to the core" Jack thought. If not for that, they could probably have taught each other a few things. As for the old geezer well... by now he was probably done burning alive on that ugly backwater world. Thinking back to that mission, it had been a real slap in the face for the tattooed woman. Is that all that waited for her if she stayed on her path to revenge? To burn alive and alone, consumed by the flames of a fire she would have started herself in her psychotic hunt for vengeance? Shepard sure had some balls leaving the had-been mercenary to die there.

Shepard. With the tiniest hint of a smile, Jack chuckled inwardly as she finally understood the reason she had come up to the CIC. Shepard. Her feelings about the resplendent man in full combat armor standing behind the pilot's leather chair were, at best, confused. When she had first met him on the purgatory, come to take her away in his brand new Cerberus ship, Jack had cataloged him as nothing more than another Cerberus sell-out. Her opinion of the commander soon started changing however as he kept coming down to her hole, asking about her and trying to lead her away from the path of violence and hatred she had been following for as long as she could remember. He was the only person on the ship who didn't seem afraid of her on any level. For the first time in a very, very long time, someone seemed to see her as more than a weapon or a goldmine.

Shepard's gaze had blown right through the barriers of tattoo she so blatantly displayed to draw everyone's attention away from her true self, and had little by little made its way to the scared kid still hiding somewhere inside of her. That was probably why she had asked him to go to Pragia with her. There, in the not-as-empty-as-expected ruins of the Teltin facility, she had granted Shepard access to the last dark corners of her self. The place all her nightmares were born from. The place all her now slightly-less-frequent nightmares still took her too. The place they had blown to bits together, finally. Shepard even had the foresight to break their usual trio and bring the drell instead of the cheerleader down to the rainy planet. While prowling her old room for one last time, she had come to greatly appreciate the assassin's way to disappear in the shadows.

Seeing him now, standing proud behind the pilot's seat and determination evident on his face as he checked on the status of the whole team through comm, Jack was finally able to forget about the metal chunk in her hand. Shepard had taken them all this far, he would not let them die before they could at the very least complete their mission. The Collectors would go down. And then who knows? Maybe she could pay him a little visit in his quarters. Use those biotic powers to mold something other than metal, maybe.

As the Normandy began its final approach to the Omage 4 relay, its eerie light began filling the entire cockpit until everything Jack could see was coloured blood red. Soon, the pilot's voice came on the ship's speakers.

"You better hang on to something people! Hitting the Omega 4 relay in five..."

Jack lets the metal chunk fall noiselessly to the ground.

"...four..."

She steps up next to Shepard, still calm and steady as his eyes transitioned from the holo-displays in front of the pilot to the ghastly glow of the mass relay.

"...three..."

Their eyes meet.

"...two..."

They nod to one another.

"...one..."

Their hands find each other.


	2. Ch2 Jaws of Life

**Inventive uses of mass effect fields**

**Chapter 2: Jaws of Life**

"This isn't how we planned this mission, but this is where we're at" began Shepard, once the entire team at taken place in the briefing room.

Ever since the jump through the Omega 4 relay, not much had gone according to plan. The dreaded Collector ship that had been the death of the SR1, an army of drones, and even fields of space debris larger than an asteroid belt… It's like everything here didn't want them to reach the Collector base. And they had almost succeeded too. The ship and everyone onboard had made it, thanks to all the upgrades that the Normandy SR2 had undergone since the beginning of the mission, but now they were stuck there, grounded on a base they were set to destroy in the galactic core._"This just keeps getting better and better"_ thought Jack as the commander continued his speech.

"We can't worry about whether the Normandy can get us home. We came to stop the collectors, and that means coming up with a plan to take out this station." On that note, Shepard placed both hands on the conference table and looked at its center. "EDI, bring up your scans."

Above the center of the table, a holo-display of the entire collector base appeared, showing all of its rooms and corridors. At first, all Jack could see was a maze of lines, until a group of them became highlighted in blue, tracing a route from some point at the bottom of the display to a large room much higher up. The bottom point was marked as their crash site.

"You should be able to overload their critical systems if you get to the main control center here" offered the ship's A.I. as it indicated the large room at the top of the display.

"That means going through the heart of the station, right past that massive energy signature" pointed out the puppy.

Shepard considered the schematics for a few seconds. "That's the central chamber. If our crew is still alive, the Collectors are probably holding them there." he said, standing up once again and pointing to a room. "We have to check on them before making it to the main control chamber."

While the different members of the team started piecing together a plan to make it from the Normandy to the central chamber, Jack soon started losing attention. Even if the drugs had left her body years ago, to her hesitation and planning still meant weakness and pain. Shepard didn't recruit her to think; he recruited her to kill anyone stupid enough to stand in their way. And that was perfectly fine with her...

"Looks like there are two main routes. Might be a good idea to split up to keep the collectors off balance, then regroup in the central chamber." One of them suggested, she didn't necessarily care who.

"No good. Both routes are blocked. See these doors? The only way to get past is to get someone to open them from the other side."

"What about that ventilation shaft here? Someone could sneak in through there and unlock the doors for the rest of us."

"Practically a suicide mission. I volunteer."

"I appreciate the thought Jacob, but you couldn't shut down the security system in time. We need to send a tech expert."

_"And the bitch gets wipped!"_ thought Jack, chuckling inside.

"For once, I agree with you" interrupted the quarian. "I'll go in the shaft and open the doors for you Shepard."

"I'm sorry Tali, but I can't let you do that. We have no idea what's in those vents or if your suit can cope with it. I'm not losing you to a cough in there and compromising the safety of the entire team. Legion, you can hack through anything and your body has the most chances of survival. I'm sending you into the shaft."

"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander."

"What?" the quarian began to protest. "You're going to-"

"We understand your frustration, Tali-Creator," the geth interjected in its monotone voice, "but Shepard-Commander is right. While your body is more fragile than most, ours is more resilient. Have trust in us, Tali-Creator, we will not fail the team."

"I'm not... Bosh'tet! Fine, we'll do it your way Shepard."

"Good." the commander nodded. "Now, the rest of us will break into two teams and fight down each passage. That should draw the Collectors' attention away from what you're doing. Miranda, Jack, you're coming with me as usual. The rest of you will be under Garrus' orders. I know you've had you issues with command ever since Omega, Garrus, but I know you can do this."

"Don't worry Shepard" replied the turian. "Any issues I might have had I buried along with Sidonis. We'll see you on the other side."

Time on the ship made Jack accustomed to Shepard's way of command. She could feel a speech coming on… and she was right. She knew she was as soon as Shepard began to look at each team member and slowly started to pace around the room.

"Make no mistake people;" he began, "once we're in there, they're going to throw everything they have at us. If we're weak, if we're slow, if we hesitate, we'll die. The Collectors attacked our ship. They took our crew, our... friends. They think we're helpless, but they're wrong. Who knows how many of us the Collectors have abducted. Thousand, hundreds of thousands? It's not important. What matters is this. Not. One. More. That's what we can do. They want to know what we're made of? I say we show them. Come on, let's bring our people home."

As soon as Jack's feet touched the ground, she felt much better. No more wandering around uselessly in an almost empty ship, no more waiting anxiously for a laser beam to shatter the hull next to her, no more planning for the unknown. Now was the time for action, now was her time.

As the other fire team split from their group to go up the second passage, Shepard, Miranda and Jack fell into advance position as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The three of them had gone on so many missions together during the recruitment of the team and the investigation of the missing colonies that they barely had to think about their roles in the unit. Jack would lead, clearing a path with her shotgun and powers. Shepard would follow to give commands and take care of the major threats. Miranda closed the march, watching their back and adding support fire for the other two to move more freely.

In time, Miranda and Jack had even found ways for their biotics to compliment each others. While the ex-convict infused biotic energy in every ammo slug to makes their bullets even deadlier, the Cerberus operative enveloped each member of the party with an additional level of barrier. This formation had allowed them to move swiftly and without major injury on most of their previous missions, dealing unforgiving death to all who dared oppose them. This time would be no exception.

After slaughtering the first few Collectors they encountered, the party received a transmission from the infiltrating geth. According to Shepard, the ventilation shaft was rigged with valves they would need to activate themselves in order for Legion to progress. If they took too much time, heat and pressure would build within the shaft, posing a threat to even the infiltrator's body. Seems like Shepard had been right to send him after all; the quarian probably wouldn't have lasted five minutes in there.

Opening valve after valve on their way, the team made steady progress through the Collector base. The freakish super Collector appeared a few times but each time it did, the party knew exactly how to deal with it without Shepard even having to give orders. While Jack kept the other smaller Collectors busy, the commander would attract the burning freak into the cheerleader's line of sight so she could tear down his barriers with her refined warp technique. Once those were down, the entire party would rain incendiary ammo on the thing until it was nothing but dust. Their first real problem they encountered appeared when they reached the security doors.

They weren't opened.

Facing an endless army and without any proper cover, the three of them could never hold this position for very long, no matter how good their teamwork. Her back to the cold hard steel of the doors, Jack kept firing at the collectors and sending them flying but each time she killed one, there were three more to replace him. From the corner of her eye she could see Shepard screaming into his comm for the other team to open the doors. After who knows how long, Jack finally felt a tremor go through the doors as they slid open.

"Fall back! Go! Go! Go!" Shepard yelled, still shooting at the army of Collectors.

As Miranda, Shepard and her ran for safety, Garrus brought his team in to cover them. Why wasn't the door closed back already? Looking around on the other side, Jack saw the geth clearly having problems with the hacking. Not waiting on him to get his act together, the krogan and the Cerberus puppy each began pushing on a door for them to close.

"Suppressing fire! Don't let anything through that door" ordered the turian.

The doors were closing, but too slowly. There was just so many of them! And just as Jack thought they were really screwed up, the god-damn giant freak came out of nowhere again. Hiding behind an endless living shield of mindless soldiers so the team couldn't shoot him down, it kept advancing towards the door. No matter how many they killed, there was always more of them protecting him.

A hundred feet, fifty feet, twenty feet. Then, just as it seemed the team would finally reach him through the minions, it dropped the rifle it was holding, brought its clawed hands up and let go a large bolt of brownish energy towards them. There was no time to react.

As it was, the missile would blow off the head of the krogan still pushing to close the doors. But it never did. The second before the blast reached the doors, they finally shut. The deadly energy blast hit the doors with its full strength, sending ripples of energy through them that pushed the entire team to the ground.

After helping everyone up, Shepard approached the Krogan, who seemed oblivious to the fact he had just almost died.

"You all right Grunt?" the commander asked.

"'Course, Shepard. It'll take more than a little scare to hurt a pure Krogan" he replied. Considering his for a few seconds, Jack thought the krogan was actually rather enjoying himself.

"I thought so." Shepard gave a nod. Turning himself to face the geth, he added, "That was a bit too close for comfort Legion, but you still did it. Good job."

"Our apologies, Shepard-commander. We will make sure to keep in memory the architecture of collector programming for more efficient future usage."

"That's all r-"

"Shepard!" called Miranda. "You need to see this".

Jack lingered in the spot for a moment before eventually picking up her fallen Eviscerator shotgun and following the others as they went to join the cheerleader. The team had made it to the central chamber of the Collectors' base and, as Shepard expected, this was where all the abducted humans had been stored. Before them lay a vast chamber, filled with dozens upon dozens of pods similar to the ones they had seen the Collectors move around on Horizon.

As she got closer to them, Jack could soon notice that each of the pods contained an unconscious human being and was hooked to various cables, pipes and other strange equipment serving functions completely lost on her. One of the pods in particular caught her eye, and so she slowly made her way to it. With a sudden realization, she actually recognized the man inside; it was the one who had tried to give her shit about the chunk of metal. These pods didn't contain just anybody. This was the Normandy's fucking crew.

Before the ex-convict could warn Shepard and the rest of the team, the various equipments from some of the pods began producing a faint hissing sound. _"This can't be good"_ thought Jack. A second later, all of the pods became illuminated from the inside, revealing the Normandy's entire crew as well as other humans Jack had never seen before.

"Looks like one of the missing colonists" said the cheerleader.

"There's more, over here!"

Jack made her way to Shepard who was standing in front of a group of pods containing nothing but colonists. Just as the tattooed woman opened her mouth, one of the abducted colonists suddenly jolted back to life inside her pod.

"My god, they're alive!" gasped the commander.

Jack had seen and, to be honest, caused her fair share of terrified faces in her years of violent rampage before she was captured by the Blue Suns and frozen in the purgatory. But these were nothing like the one she saw in the pod that day. When Jack's victims realized their lives would soon be over by her hands, they were scared, frustrated, and they hated her; but they understood what was going on and what was coming, even if they didn't want to accept it. The face Jack saw in the pod right there and now was the face of absolute terror of an innocent victim who had absolutely no idea where she was, how she had gotten there, why she had gotten there and even less what was happening, except that it was painful, so very excruciatingly painful.

Even as the woman started crying and beating her fists bloody against the tainted glass cover of her pod, her skin began to turn black and split open all over her body. From every opening wound, blood, muscle and even bones began to pour out, liquefied by the unnatural chemicals the Collectors were pumping inside the young woman's disappearing body. After a few seconds, she stopped banging against her pod, her arms nothing anymore but bloody rags of skin hanging loosely from her dissolving shoulders. The crying and screaming kept going for just a little longer until her airways finally collapsed on itself, reducing the woman to silence in the face of her death. One of the last things to go before the whole body fell apart was the eyes. They kept their horrified, frantic look up until the very end but then, just as they began to melt, Jack thought she could also make out the tiniest hint of something very familiar: hatred. Barely thirty seconds after the woman had jolted back to life, all that was left of her was a puddle of indistinct organic material slowly being drained at the bottom of the pod.

"Get those pods open! NOW!" ordered Shepard, bringing the team out of their shock-induced stupor.

Without any questions, all the members of the team began desperately trying to open the rest of the pods. All around her, Jack could some of them trying to break the glass covers using the butts of their assault rifles while others struggled to pry the entire cover open. The ex-convict decided to go with the former method, in her own special way. With a minimum of effort, Jack concentrated tremendous biotic energy in her arms before ramming both her fists in the glass cover of the closest Pod. To her surprise, it wasn't enough to completely shatter the glass but she still managed to create large cracks in it.

With its integrity apparently compromised, the pod opened up, allowing the human inside to fall to the ground. Satisfied with the positive results of her usual strategy, Jack went on to apply the same technique on all the other pods close to her. When they had first begun their bloody march through the alien base, the tattooed woman had to admit she had not really considered this a rescue mission. To her, the primary reason they had come here was to take down the Collectors once and for all. After seeing firsthand the horrible fate that awaited the abducted humans however, she couldn't help but feel the need to save those poor souls. No matter how much of a psychopath she was, she couldn't just walk away from people waiting to be liquefied. Not anymore.

_"You fucker, Shepard. I wasn't supposed to care about this." _Jack thought with a small laugh as she smashed the glass of the final pod with increased strength.

"Kelly, are you alright?" she could hear Shepard ask as he helped the confused redhead get up.

"Shepard? You came for us. If you had gotten here just a few moments later... I don't even want to think about it!"

"Nobody gets left behind" replied Shepard, always the knight in shining armor. "What happened in those pods?"

"The colonist, they were... processed" offered the elderly doctor. "Their bodies, they... they were melted into grey liquid and pumped through those tubes."

"Why are they doing this? What are they doing with… whatever the hell they turned them into?"

"I don't know" answered the older woman. "I'm just glad it didn't happen to us, commander."

"So are we" interrupted the cheerleader. "But we still have a job to do."

"Joker, can you get a fix on our location?" asked the commander.

"Roger that commander" soon replied the pilot through all of the team's ear-pieces. "All those tubes lead into the main control room right above you. The route is blocked by a security door, but there's another chamber that runs parallel to the one you're in."

Before anyone could talk, the A.I. added "I do not recommend that course of action. Thermal emissions suggest the chamber is overrun with seeker swarms. Mordin's countermeasure cannot protect you against so many at once."

"What about biotics? Could we create a biotic field to keep them from getting near us?"

"Yes... I think it may be possible" answered the asari. "I couldn't protect everyone, but we might be able to get a small team through if they stayed close."

"I could do it too" said the cheerleader, never willing to let anyone else shine in her stead. "In theory, any biotic could handle it."

Shepard took a few seconds to consider his options. This mission was getting more complicated by the minute and Jack didn't think she would have followed anybody else than their commander into this hellish place. The way he fearlessly kept leading them through every obstacle truly was inspiring and, unlike the meeting on the ship before the battle, Jack found that she was now eagerly awaiting Shepard's next orders.

"All right people, this is what we're gonna do" he finally said. "Samara, I want you to go with crew and the colonists and escort them to the Normandy for extraction. You can use your biotic powers to protect them. Jacob, you're going with them too. While Samara ensures their protection, you can take down the few Collectors you may encounter on the way."

"You're going to send two of us away?" asked the puppy with incredulity. "But the-"

"This is NOT the time to question my order Mr. Taylor. These men and women have just spent the last few days unconscious in pods and were seconds away from being processed. They are in no shape to fight and need our protection. I am putting you in charge of our crew's lives Jacob, of our fiend's lives. Nothing is to happen to them. Am I understood?" Shepard asked with a hint of anger. Now truly wasn't the time to double think things. It was do or die.

"Sir! Loud and clear, sir." The puppy responded with a salute.

_"Ooh! Wipped again"_ thought Jack, unable not to smile, before the commander continued.

"Thane and my team will go through the Seeker swarms. The rest of you will go with Garrus again and provide a diversion by going through the main passage. We'll open the security door from the other side and meet you there."

Shepard took a small pause for everyone to nod, take place besides their teammates and reload their weapons.

"All right, we've all got our assignments. Let's move out!"


	3. Ch 3 Life Line

Sorry this took so long to update. The chapter's been done for a long time but apparently my beta-reader vanished from existence or something lol. So anyways, here's chapter three. This one still mostly sticks to the game, but the next one (final chapter of the suicide mission) will diverge more. And after the fourth, it will be pure fiction (with much nakedness ;) ). So please stick with me! I got quite a few chapters outlined already that just need to be actuary written. I even started working the story into ME3. Cheers!

* * *

**Inventive uses of Mass Effect fields**

**Chapter three: Life line**

« FUCK! »

barked Jack as her last shot went wide and she ducked back into the depression where the team was taking cover to change the thermal clip on her shotgun. A few steps away, she could see the cheerleader doing the same with her fancy pistol while Shepard was emptying yet another clip of his heavy assault rifle into a Collector that had made the mistake of breaking cover. The ugly creature soon fell to the ground where it disintegrated as the commander lowered himself back into cover, making his way over to the drell still hiding behind a pillar to check on him. If the assassin dropped his focus for a single second, the biotic bubble surrounding them would come down and expose them to the swarm of bugs just waiting for their chance. Talk about protection. This almost made Jack miss the enclosed metal hull of the Normandy where she usually felt so powerless.

When they had stepped out of it and into the enemy base to begin their glorious march barely an hour ago, the ex-convict had been relieved to finally get some action. The three of them had made it to the first rendezvous point without any serious problem, tearing down any Collector who dared oppose them. All things considerate, Jack would even say it had been fun. But this? This was more than she had signed for. This was hell. Even since Shepard led their team into the bug filled passage, things had kept going from bad to worse, and then to even fucking worse. The fact they had to stay within a few steps of each other to benefit from the relative safety of the biotic bubble prevented the three fighters from using their usual advance pattern and limited their movement speed. Then there was the screen of stupid seeker swarm that crowded the surface of the bubble, almost completely obscuring their targets while the Collectors just had to shoot at the giant moving sphere of bugs to hit them. To top it all, Jack could tell that they were all getting tired. She was beginning to have trouble infusing biotic energy in every single one of the ridiculous amount of bullets they were firing. The cheerleader had also almost stopped using her warp power, rather relying on less demanding ones such as slam to slow down the incoming enemies. Even the commander moved significantly slower than usual. But the worse off was the drell. With every passing minute they spent in this nightmare, she could see the intense effort taking its heavy toll on him; from the deepening frown on his face to his weakening posture. The tattooed woman didn't know how much more of this he could take, and after seeing what happened to the colonist trapped in the tubes minutes ago, she refused to think about what would happen to them if he let go.

"_Snap out of it Jack! You don't have time for this kind of shit thinking! Focus on getting out of here!"_

Shaking her head lightly to get rid of the morbid images, Jack began firing her shotgun anew along with her team mates. Before too long, the last ambushing Collectors were nothing more than dust and the team was free to keep moving forward.

"All clear", finally said the Commander. "Are you ready to move up Thane? We have to get to the door before Garrus' team."

"I… yes. I will be fine Shepard. Don't worry about me, just lead the way."

With this, the drell leaned off the pillar and started slowly advancing after the commander. Jack followed closely as the radio buzzed with what little communications from the other team managed to make it through the cloud of bugs messing up the signal. From what they could make of it, things weren't much better on their side. Between the escort for the crew and their own enlarged team, there weren't many actual fighters left for the turian to lead; and it would take more than an underage krogan to compensate for the fact that most of the people on the second fire team were tech specialist not very well suited to fight the decidedly organic Collectors. All in all, Jack really wasn't sure which team was the worst off. But then, at least their side had the commander. Even in his exhausted state, even with barely any thermal clips left, even with their biotic bubble about to crash down on them, and even with nothing but bad news from the other half of his painfully recruited team, Shepard kept on fearlessly leading the four of them through the Collector base towards their ultimate goal. As the Jack looked up at him a few meters ahead, she saw the man looking back to her as well. Their eyes locked for a second and they nodded to each other. This would soon be over; only a few more turns through the hazardous corridor and they would reach the new rendez-vous point.

As the commander reached another low stockade, a familiar sound began to fill the space around them, like an entire army of corpse trying to breathe their way back to life, the foul air wheezing through their bottomless and ruined airways. Husks. If the Collectors were reduced to sending these mindless shells to stop them, it meant their team really was getting close to its goal.

"_Good_" thought Jack with a renewed energy. "_I couldn't stand behind this close to the cheerleader for much longer._"

Apparently, the worn out drell also recognized the sound of the incoming foe despite not having faced them as often. Picking up the pace, he stumbled to hide behind a block.

"Looks like this could be a real fight. I'll hold this position until you're ready to move out, but please hurry. The effort is getting… overwhelming"

"_A real fight? Against Husks? As if"_ thought Jack, smiling as she put away her shotgun and began building biotic energy all around her.

Ever since she joined Shepard's suicide squad, the ex-convict had had plenty of violent encounters with the lifeless shells called husks. They didn't look like much from afar, except maybe damn ugly, but the sons of bitches could get real nasty up close, especially when they ganged up on you. The three of them didn't take long to realize that bullets weren't much affective against these particular foes. Seeing as they were already dead and brainless, they couldn't really be maimed or hurt, much to Jack's disappointment. In order to put them down, they had to literally tear them to pieces, which took a stupid amount of bullets because of the reaper technology fused with their body. These same body enhancements turned out to be their downfall however.

Apparently, like most of the reaper technologies, the husk bodies turned out to be powered by mass effect fields. This means that using any kind biotic powers on them completely fucked up their fancy implants, making them as fragile as glass. Jack knew the salarian had been studying this phenomenon ever since she discovered it by chance on some remote world. It was all still a puzzle to him last she heard but she couldn't fucking care less. All that mattered was that she now could wipe out waves after waves of the damn things with a simple application of her favorite strategy.

The three of them quickly took a defensive position behind the nearby low walls and columns. Soon, the undead hybrids began to crawl out from various traps in the floor. Looking at the cheerleader, Jack saw that she too had put away her weapon and was preparing to unleash biotic hell upon the advancing husks. Only the commander still had his custom geth gun, seeing as he possessed no biotic powers. The ex-convict never really liked that gun. She had never been one to refrain from stealing useful stuff, but something just didn't quite feel right about using equipment adapted from a race such as the geth. Besides, the thing looked like a toy to her. She needed to feel the drawback of her shotgun in a fight, kept her pumped on adrenaline.

As soon as the husks entered their powers' effective range, both Jack and the cheerleader let loose. The ground shook with the raw power of the tattooed woman's shockwave blasts while the Cerberus officer crushed others into the slimy floor with her slams. Meanwhile, Shepard made sure none of the enemies got too close to the two women. His shots didn't really hurt the husks, but the force of their impact was powerful enough to knock them down, effectively slowing them down long enough for his team mates to properly obliterate them. This kept going for a while until, after a few long minutes, the remaining husks suddenly stopped moving. The two women, sweating and panting from the exhaustion, gratefully appreciated the pause and also stopped their incredible display of biotics. The ground, however, did not stop shaking. The three humans looked at themselves, perplex. And then they heard the scream.

"Oh FUCK me. You have GOT to be kidding" said Jack, her eyes rolling upward.

"Take formation! NOW!" yelled Shepard, clearly having understood as well the meaning of the dreaded sound.

People on the ship called them Scions. Jack simply called them Huge Fucking Piece of Shit. From the look of them, size DID matter with husks. Even though the salarian kept telling them these things were simply a few husks put together, that didn't change the fact that biotic power didn't do shit against them. They had to be put down the hard, long, and usually painful way. In time, Shepard had managed to devise a formation meant exclusively to kill them. It basically included him disregarding cover to empty rounds after rounds of high caliber incendiary AP bullets in the thing's huge blue shoulder-sac while the cheerleader put all her biotics into shielding him and Jack distracted the remaining enemies by all means necessary. Biotics, bullets, blowing up gas pipes, whatever.

As the footsteps got closer, the commander exited cover with his sniper this time again, the cheerleader taking her position in front of him and deploying a strong barrier. Normally, Jack truly enjoyed her role in this. It was pretty much the times when Shepard cut her the most loose to go crazy bitch. This time however, already tired from all the fighting, she could barely contain the ever incoming husks while they all waited for the huge fucking piece of shit to show its ugly dangling head. As soon as it did, the commander opened continuous semi-auto fire with his sniper and soon managed to rupture the creature's sac, the resulting burst of energy killing off the last remaining husks.

"Come on people" yelled the Commander. "We need to go, now!"

Painfully getting up from behind his block, the drell started moving forward again. With all the biotic noise from the recent fight, the assassin's state had become even worse. He couldn't even stand straight anymore and each step was an obvious effort. Jack didn't give him another 5 minutes. That exit had better be close alright.

"Lead the way Shepard. I will hold on… as long... as I can…"

As the team began properly moving once more, new husks came crawling out from different traps, only to be pushed back in violently back the two biotic women. None of them could take much more of this. The ex-convict was so exhausted she was about to switch back to her shotgun when she finally heard it.

"There!" sighted the drell's strained voice. "I can... see the entrance! Need… to get there… soon!"

Turning forward, Jack could see it too at last. A large opened door down a very exposed ramp; their own little doorway out of this fucking hell. She could barely believe they had made it. The tattooed woman had never considered herself as afraid of death, but the relieve she felt at that moment was incredible. Eagerly following the assassin who had broken into an awkward run, she thought back of that moment on the Normandy where she saw Shepard right before the jump though the Omega relay. Was it him she had been afraid of losing this whole time? So distracted was she by this most disturbing train of thought that she failed to notice the tragedy taking place mere feet away from her, not until it was too late.

The drell had fallen a few dozen steps before reaching the gate; and with him the precious biotic bubble.

It happened so fast Jack couldn't even make any sense of it. One second she was running towards safety, their fearless commander on her mind. The next the world was nothing else than seeker swarms, coming in from everywhere, buzzing in her hears and blocking her sight. Before she could do anything, the bugs stung a dozen times over and her body began to refuse obeying further commands. Wild panic invaded her mind as swarms began to lift her from the ground, away from the precious door, away from the commander. She saw herself in a pod, her skin splitting and melting like those of the colonist and began to scream for her life, begging for help that could never come.

"JACK! NOO!" she could hear the commander scream through the ruckus filling her hears.

Looking down, she could see Shepard with the nearly fainted drell propped on his shoulder. He locked gaze with her for an interminable second, before lowering them and ordering retreat to the others. Tears of rage and sorrow began running down the tattooed woman skin as she kept screaming, now a good 15 feet in the air and climbing. She couldn't believe her life would end like this; even after all she had been through ever since her escape from the purgatory. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. This wasn't-

"MIRANDA!" came the voice of the commander once again.

Had the cheerleader bitch been taken too? Her eyes the only thing still responding, Jack strained to look down once more. No. The Cerberus lieutenant was still solidly on the ramp, but running away from the exit.

"_What the hell…"_

"Get back here Miranda! It's too late!"

Not bothering with an answer, the cheerleader lifted both her slander arms towards Jack and began glowing brightly of biotic energies. Suddenly, even through her panicked state and paralysis, the ex-convict felt the all too familiar touch of a mass effect field all around her. A second later, she felt tremendous acceleration as her body was torn from the cloud of seekers and brutally slammed down onto the ground of the platform.

"Dammit woman!" barked Shepard, letting go of the assassin and taking out his rifle.

To Jack's overwhelming shame, the cheerleader then rushed to her and picked her up, carrying her limp body as fast as she could back towards the exit while the commander gave them cover fire. As soon as they were through the door, the drell closed it shut. The Cerberus lieutenant then propped the ex-convict against a low wall, quickly took out a syringe of medigel and punched its needle into her tattooed shoulder. Jack was in complete shock, both physically and mentally. Twenty seconds ago her life was forfeit, soon to be ended in horrible pain at the hands of the Collectors. Now, she had just been saved by the woman she probably hated the most in the galaxy. What the fuck had just happened? As she kept trying to make sense of it all, waiting for the specially conceived medigel to counter the seeker poison, she could hear the Turian's voice over on the comm-link.

"… do you copy? Come on Shepard! Where are you?"

"I copy Garrus. What's your position?"

The second fire team had made it to the door pretty much at the same time as them but was now pinned down and taking heavy fire from the Collectors, just like their own team had been earlier. Taking position by the door with the cheerleader, the commander ordered the drell to open it. Despite his exhaustion, the assassin quickly made his way to the console.

As soon as the door opened, the room was filled with gun shots as the Turian's team retreated in haste behind the large metal plates. It didn't take Jack's vast brawling experience to notice the poor state of the team's members. Armors busted, clothes torn apart, different colored blood splatters all over. The ex-convict doubted any of them was still unharmed from the run, even the krogan.

No sooner had the entire team crossed the door that they were shut sealed again by the drell, but it was too late. With the sound of the Collector shooting muffled by the thick metal of the doors, every member of the team could hear what happened next very clearly. The all too familiar sound of a body limply falling to the ground.

"TALI!"

Within a second, the commander has rushed to knee by the side of his agonizing friend, holding her in his arms. As Jack finally managed to get back up on her legs, all the other members of the team stopped moving, simply staring at the shivering quarian. Upon closer examination, Jack could see that her suit had been ripped and punctured in dozens of places, all of which were surrounded by a darker stain on the exotic material. Even the shaded glass of her face mask was split by a large crack, a piece of it missing in a corner. At this point, everyone knew it was too late for her. A quarian could die from a single scratch without proper treatment, let alone this kind of damage. As the young mechanic exchanged last words with the commander, Jack approached her savior from behind and harshly asked under her breath.

"Why bitch? Why d'you fucking do it?"

Without turning to face her, the Cerberus officer replied in the same low voice so to avoid causing a commotion.

"This isn't the time Jack"

"Bullshit! You hate me just as much as I hate you. I was dead meat back there, gone, just like you've wanted me to be ever since I got on your damn ship. So why the fuck did you come back for me like that?"

This time, the other woman did turn back, moving her face mere inches away from the ex-convict's.

"Dammit Jack, grow up! This is bigger than you and me. Jacob and Samara are already gone, Thane and the other fire team are exhausted, and now we've just lost Tali. This mission can't afford to lose another team member. Not even a selfish psychopath like you. Instead of wondering why I saved your sorry ass, you should start wondering if you'd have what it takes to do the same for one of us."

Before the tattooed woman could reply anything, the dark haired woman stomped away towards to commander to pick him back up, leaving Jack with her confused thoughts. No matter how badly she hated the bitch, even more so now that she had saved her life, Jack couldn't help but be taken aback by what she had just said. If it came to it, would she have the courage to risk her life for another member of the team? A few shorts weeks ago, when she had first met the unusual bunch, this sort of question would have made her roll on the floor chocking on her own laughter. For so many years, life had been all about her. Alone. Fighting. Surviving. But now… Once again, she cursed Shepard in her mind for making her care about this entire suicide mission. She could barely believe she was actually giving thought to such a naive and foolish notion as sacrifice.

To her grand relief, her wreck of a train of thoughts was cut short by the commander calling out to the entire team from atop a raised part of the floor. According to the ship's AI, they were just a floating platform ride away from the central chamber where all the tubes of human material were leading, but the Collectors were already beginning to mass outside the doors, trying to force them back open. Time was running short.

As the commander and the attention whore began discussing plans, Jack noticed that her hand had unconsciously made its way into her pocket and was fidgeting with the object it contained. She hadn't planned on bringing it here, she hadn't wanted to. But now that she had, the ex-convict thought it may have been a good idea after all. Slowly, she took the lipstick sized tube out of her pocket and raised it to her face. From the corner of her eye, she could see the salarian looking at her indirectly and giving the smallest of nod, only for her to notice.

Jack had been about to go up to the commander's quarters when she had heard the sound footsteps on the metal stairs leading down to her lair. Before she knew it, she was up from her bunk with her heart pounding, expecting the visitor to be the commander as usual. Disappointment washed over her when she realized it was actually the ship's mad scientist.

"The fuck do you want Solus?" Jack had asked immediately, an edge to her voice.

"Jack. Relieved to find you here. Would like to have a word with you if possible. Important matter, I believe."

"Make it quick, I got better shit to do than listen to you rambling all day", _especially when there's just 2 hours before we get to the Omega relay_…

"Of course, yes, very dangerous mission coming. Have much preparation to do myself. Recalibrating omnitool for organic foes, recharging the swarm counter measure modules for the team, producing backup of research data in case of-"

"TO THE POINT SOLUS" growled Jack, summoning biotic energies to her fists in a display of power that made the usually immovable salarian take a step back.

"Yes. Yes. Of course, my apologies. You see Jack, when the Normandy was docked on Illium to recruit Mr. Krios and Samara, I managed to acquire some of the red sand that was being smuggled. As you must know, red sand is a biotic enhancing drug not, unfortunately, without undesirable side effects."

"You're quickly burning through your time and my patience salarian…" said Jack, not liking where the conversation was headed.

"My point is, I believe I've found a way to counter these side effects through further refining of the sands. I've also added several other chemicals meant to heal and energize the user, which should all be totally harmless, in theory. Of course, no amount of theory is worth a field test. You possibly being the strongest biotic on the ship, I thought you would be the perfect test subj-"

That word. Before the salarian could even finish uttering it, Jack's eyes had shot wide open with rage and she had hit the scientist with a biotic field so powerful he flew across the deck and crashed into the wall so hard he would most likely have snapped his spine if he hadn't had the clairvoyance to wear a kinetic shield.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME! YEARS I spent a prisoner of Cerberus for their twisted experiments! YEARS I spent running from them across the entire god damn galaxy! YEARS I spent frozen in that fucking prison ship! And now you have the guts to come at me for AN EXPERIMENT! GET OUT OF HERE before I fucking rip through your shield and show you how much of the _strongest biotic_ I am!"

Not willing to face the tattooed woman in a fit of rage, the scientist had quickly picked himself up and gone, leaving Jack fuming in place, untamed biotic energy flaring out of her as she tried hard to regain her composure. She couldn't believe the nerves of that old fool. Everywhere she looked, all she could see was the fact she was on a Cerberus ship and she kept wondering if all of this hadn't been nothing but a trap. Once the mission was over, what would happen? Would Cerberus try to come after her again, to turn her back in Subject Zero? She almost wished the bitch would try. That would be a mighty fine excuse to break her in two.

By the time Jack managed to calm down, on her knees with her head buried in her hands, the ship had almost reached the Omega relay. Too late to go see the commander now. According to the AI he was already in full combat armor, watching over the final approach in the cockpit. _Dammit,_ she thought. As she lifted her head, she noticed something lying on the ground where she had pushed the salarian. A small tube, the size of a lipstick maybe. It was simply labeled "Red drive: proto 1".

"Fucker" simply said Jack as she put the tube on her table. After staring at it for a minute, she finally turned her back and went up her stairs, heading for the elevator.

Answering to his nod by simply lifting a particular finger, Jack opened the tube. She hated what she was about to do, hated the idea of being anyone's test subject again, even if it was willingly. But she didn't have much of a choice right now. Shepard would surely want her and the cheerleader by his side again for the final push. And after her near abduction by the seeker swarm, she was in no shape to fight. The idea of being benched even worse than that of being a test subject, Jack reluctantly brought the opened tube to her nose.

"_Let's go Zero. We got more asses to kick before this is over_" she thought, right before taking a strong sniff of Red Drive.


	4. Ch4 CBT

Author's Note: A NEW CHAPTER! About time, I know. Sorry guys I just haven't been into writing so much lately. A big thanks to all the people who faved and review this story, it's what gave me the motivation to finish this chapter.

I've lost my beta reader so I hope it doesn't show too much in the writing. This is the last chapter of the suicide mission. Starting next chapter, it's all original stuff and the romance will truly begin. I may eventualy have to put edited versions of the chapters here with links to the full version on AFF.

* * *

**Inventive use of Mass Effect fields**

**Chapter Four: CBT**

For the shortest of seconds, the annoying little voice of reason inside Jack's head managed to shrug off its gag-ball and reminded her that letting Shepard and the cheerleader know she was on drugs by showing off probably wasn't the best of ideas. Also, the Salarian himself had admitted to not knowing the possible side-effects of his new little toy.

Fortunately, the second was soon over and the voice of reason was slapped back into unconsciousness as the ex-convict extended her arms in front of her and wrapped one of the incoming floating platforms in a powerful biotic field. With both her team mates starring at her in disbelief, Jack then roared like a beast and flung her arms sideways, sending the platform flying through the air until it crashed into another one. With a large grin spreading upon her face, the tattooed woman just stood there watching as the dozen or so collectors fell helplessly to their deaths down the bottomless pit underneath them.

"Fuck. Yes."

* * *

The very second the drug entered her system, Jack had felt its effect. It started slowly, a mere tingle in her head, around her biotic lobe and her L5x implant. Then the tingle got stronger and before she knew it, turned into a pain so intense throughout her entire skull, it felt as if her brain matter was boiling. A second later her limbs began shaking and she had to shut her eyes in agony to prevent tears from running down her cheeks. Panic soon invaded her thoughts as the pain just kept on tearing at what little sanity she had left.

_Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Why the hell had she trusted the fucking Salarian mad scientist? Side effects removed my ass. This shit was just going to fry her entire brain. Was this how Subject Zero was going to end? On a wretched base in the middle of nowhere, saved by a Cerberus bitch only to have her brain seared moments later by a god damned salarian drug. Fuck! FUCK!_

Then, just as she was about to fall to her knees and scream, the pain suddenly spread from her head, traveling down her entire spinal cord before spreading to the rest of her body. The sensation was out of this world; like her very blood was fuel and someone had put a match to her brain, spreading a wild fire through every last one of her blood vessels_. No, not a fire. More like a thunderbolt._ A fucking biotic lightning bolts, making every muscle in her body crisp and tense from the pain. Only her willpower kept her from collapsing as a small moan escaped her lungs, as if the air had just been brutally punched out of her.

Only as the pain finally began fading away, leaving behind nothing but an intense sensation of burning, did Jack realize just how powerful she had become. That delirious Volus back on Illium had claimed to be a biotic god, but he had simply been too high on all their cheap crap to know what the hell he was saying. This… THIS was the real deal thought the ex-convict as she saw her own skin flaring with biotic energy.

A few mere moments ago, she could barely have stopped a Carnifex round shot at her, and now her barriers were so ridiculously strong she could see the dust around her feet being blown away. Not only could she see it, she could actually _feel it_. The biotic energy in her, in everyone around, she could feel it all. From the cheerleader's weakening barriers to the leftover energy she had injected into the Commander's weapon clips earlier. She could even feel the Asari's powers at work, far away in another part of the base, probably fending off more collectors along with the Cerberus lapdog.

Calming herself, less the others notice what was going on, Jack noticed another change as well. The pain from her wounds, the exhaustion from the walk through the seeker tunnel, and any trace of the paralysis the damn things had inflicted on her. They were all gone. As a matter of fact, the tattooed woman felt even better then when they had even first landed on the Collector base. Not only that, her heart was also pumping with adrenaline, her every muscle filled with renewed energy. This must have been what the lab rat had meant by "other products".

As much as the she hated playing guinea pig again, Jack had to admit that the Salarian had out-done himself. During her years on the run through the dark underbelly of the galaxy, Jack had had plenty of occasions to experiment with just about any drugs out there. Red Sands, X3, Cocaine, Creeper, Hallex, Refrain… name it, she had done some. But this thing, this "Red drive", it was really something else. So far apart from red sands it was hard to believe it had any link to it. It was like Red sands that were ON cocaine.

And it might just prove to be what Jack needed to get her Commander's cute-but-still-sorry ass out of this shit-hole of a base in one piece.

* * *

Laughing her lungs out in pure delight, Jack kept on clearing a way for their platform. Most of the enemy's ones never even made it to theirs; either sent crashing or simply flipped over as if they were mere pancakes. After a while, the commander and the cheerleader had stopped staring at her too. They kept radio silence and focused on killing what few Collectors she didn't get first.

It wasn't long before the team ran out of enemies to fight, and could advance to a larger platform equipped with a control panel. As Shepard activated it, the platform began floating away deeper into the base.

"This is it, all the tube lead to the next chamber", said the commander as he opened a link to the Normandy. "EDI, what can you tell us? What are they doing?"

"The tubes are feeding into some kind of superstructure" replied the AI. "It is emitting both organic and non-organic energy signatures. Given these readings, it must be massive. Shepard, if my calculations are correct, the superstructure is… a reaper."

As the AI spoke the last words, the team came into view of the superstructure, and all they could do was to stare in shock. Before them stood a towering monstrosity of metal into which all the tubes were feeding the same nasty liquid they had seen the prisoner be melted into not an hour before. The abomination vaguely resembled a human skeleton, a shape Jack was all too familiar with, but everything about it seemed wrong. The angles, the proportions, the shapes; everything about it seemed to pull at her sanity. It was just like the insides of that dead reaper they had found the commander's pet Geth in, but much worse. The fact it was trying to assume a human shape added insult on all the other ways this thing was wrong. Forget about saving humanity, about proving her worth to the commander, about being a god damned hero thought the ex-convict. She was going to tear this ugly motherfucker down just for trying to exist in the first place.

Unfortunately, even high on Red Drive, she doubted her usual application of raw biotic force would cut it this time. As this realization halted her mental raging, she began paying attention to the ongoing discussion.

"It appears the Collectors have processed tens of thousands of humans", said the AI. "Significantly more will be required to complete reaper".

"It's too big for our guns EDI. Find me a way to blow this thing to hell."

"The large tubes injecting the fluid are a weak structural link. Destroying them should cause the support to collapse and the Reaper to fall."

This drew a slight smile on the tattooed woman's lips.

"_Perfect",_ she thought. "_A target_." Her new excitation was soon spoiled however as she heard the telltale sound of incoming platforms from below.

"Give us a minute EDI", said the commander. "We have to take care of some old friends first. Miranda, Jack. Keep these creeps off me while I destroy those tubes and bring this monster down."

"Understood" simply replied the cheerleader.

Jack wasn't exactly happy to be placed on small fry duty, but decided to make the most out of it. And them. And the Red Drive.

As the commander shot down the first tube, the two women began killing more collectors. As usual, Jack infused all of their bullets with biotic energy, making them easily rip through the enemies' fleshy carapace. Every pistol shot from the brunette found its mark and ended a life while the shaved one reduced her targets to gruesome plies of limbs with every shotgun shell. If this was all they had to throw at them, this "suicide" mission would be over and done in no time.

When the second tube shattered, Jack noticed one of the cheerleader's victim suddenly burst into dark flames. All three of them knew what that meant, but before any could react, the Collector leader had taken possession of the fallen minion and launched a crackling ball of energy towards the cerberus officer. Crashing violently through her barrier and shield, the amber missile hit her square in the chest and sent her to the ground.

"You leave me no choice", came the disturbing voice of the flaming creature as it began walking towards the commander. "If I must tear you apart Shepard I will."

It barely had time to take a few steps however before the tattooed woman rushed over and jumped in its path.

"Like HELL you will you ugly piece of SHIT!"

All too eager to test her new biotic might against the creature, Jack infused her right fist with all the energy she could muster and brought it pummeling down into her enemy's barrier. The weak biotic carapace was no match for such brute force and burst apart on the first impact, sending out a shockwave so violent it killed some of the other approaching collectors. Then, before the flaming horror could recover and counter attack, the ex-convict lifted the barrel her Eviscerator to its face one handed and pulled the trigger, infusing the shot with so much biotic energy the cannon of the shotgun actually cracked. What little remained of the Collector leader's head and upper torso hit the ground at the same time as the glass shards from the thirst tube.

By that time, the cheerleader was back on her feet and killing enemies anew. Jack pulled out her Carnifex pistol and joined her so as to make a single front standing between their commander and the ever increasing number of collectors assaulting their platform. With the tubes breaking down one after the other, the stupid bugs must have begun sensing their incoming doom, and decided to send everything they could their way. Every time either of the women killed a target, three more took its place. The ex-convict didn't need her team mate's tactical mastery to know they couldn't handle this kind of pressure for very long. Sure, she could use her biotics to slaughter them all in no time, but found herself hesitating. After pulling that stunt on the Collector leader, she had definitely felt a drop in her energy and wasn't sure how much more she could ask out of the Red Drive and herself. In the end, her heavy pistol's thermal clip decided for her by running out.

"Ah fuck it" she whispered.

Allowing the wave of foes to approach them some more, Jack summoned everything she could in her arms and suddenly released the energy in a wide cone in front of her, effectively creating dozens of brutal shockwave biotic mines that crippled the advancing collectors and sent them all flying hundreds of meters away. Exhausted by the effort, the tattooed woman fell to one knee, panting, just as she heard the commander's sniper rifle fire the final shot.

To Jack's relief, the AI had been right. The destruction of all the tubes robbed the would-be reaper of the support it needed and, with an ear-splitting sound of tearing metal and countless explosions, the monstrosity broke free of its restraints to come crashing down into the bottomless pit beneath their platform, bringing a much deserved end to a life that should never have been in the first place.

Still panting, the ex-convict reluctantly accepted the cheerleader's hand and got up to her feet. A few meters away she could see the Commander approaching a console as he made radio contact with the rest of the team. From all the gunfire she could hear over the channel, things didn't look too good for those poor bastards they had left to guard their asses.

"Alright", replied Shepard. "Start heading back to the Normandy. Joker, prep the engines and prepare for a pickup. I'm about to overload this place and blow it sky high."

"Roger that Commander." And then "Uuh Commander? I've got an incoming signal from the Illusive Man. EDI's patching it through."

A few seconds later, the cheerleader's omni-tool flared to life and suddenly, the Illusive Man was standing amongst them. For a second, Jack's heart stopped beating and her mind went blank with fury. There has was. An arm's reach away from her. Cerberus' leader. The infamous Illusive Man. The man responsible for all the suffering she had gone through, for all the misery in her life. The man she had spent years trying to find while running from his dogs at the same time. He had to know she was there with Shepard, and yet he had the balls to just pop in and show his god damned face. Even though Jack knew it was only a holographic projection, transferred from the ship's fancy quantum whatever array, she instinctively stepped around the hateful projection to stand in its back, and engaged a fresh thermal clip in her Carnifex pistol.

"Shepard" began the old man's voice, making Jack's teeth grind. "You've done the impossible."

"I'm not finished here yet", replied the commander with his back to the hologram as he installed the overloading device in the console. "This base is 10 minutes away from extinction."

"Wait! I have a better option. I'm looking at the schematics EDI uploaded. A timed radiation pulse would kill the remaining Collectors, but leave the machinery and technology intact. This is our chance Shepard, they were building a reaper. That knowledge, that framework could save us."

"For god's sake they liquefied people in here! Turned humans into reaper juice!" exploded the Commander. Then, regaining his composure: "This place is an abomination. We have to destroy the base."

"Don't be short sighted", argued the Illusive Man. "Our best chance against the Reapers is to run their own resources against them. They were working directly with the Collectors; who knows what information is buried in there! This base is a gift; we can't just destroy it."

"I've seen what you and your organization make with that kind of knowledge", replied the commander, and Jack's heart beat a little faster as he looked her way through the fuzzy image of the Illusive Man. "You're completely ruthless. The next thing I know you'll be trying to grow your own reaper."

"My goal is to save humanity from the reapers, at _any_ cost. I've never hidden that from you. Imagine how many lives could be saved if we keep this base intact and use its knowledge to thwart the Reapers. Imagine the lives that will be lost if we don't."

"No matter what kind of technology we may find, it's not worth it."

"Shepard, you died fighting for what you believed. I brought you back so you could keep fighting. Some would say what we did to you is going too far but look what you've accomplished. I didn't discard you because I knew your value. Don't be so quick to discard this facility, think of the potential."

"No. We'll fight and win without it. I won't let fear compromise who I am."

"Miranda! Do not let Shepard destroy the base!"

"Or what? You'll replace _me_ next?" replied the cheerleader with an unimpressed voice.

"I gave you an order Miranda", warned the old man.

"I noticed. Consider this my resignation."

"Shepard! Think about what's at stake! About everything Cerberus has done for you! You-"

None of them would ever know the end of that sentence, as the brunette simply hung up on her now ex-employer.

Jack was flabbergasted; mouth gapping and eyes wide open, staring at the woman she used to think of as the Cerberus Cheerleader. Even through her extreme fatigue, she felt like bursting out in laugher at the Illusive Man's denial and jumping on the other woman to congratulate her for what was hands down one of the best Fuck You move she had ever seen. In truth, Jack felt as if she didn't know this person that had been standing with them the whole time anymore. She could see Shepard's own surprise on his face, causing the ex-officer to eventually turn away from them with her cheeks just a tad redder than they were before from the fighting. This broke the spell and both the Commander and the tattooed woman recovered from their shock.

"Let's move girls", said Shepard as he activated the device. "We got 10 minutes before the reactor overloads and blows the whole station apart."

Before any of them could move though, the ground began quaking as the proto Reaper they thought destroyed violently surfaced from beneath the platforms to show its big ugly face once more. Shrieking in anger and pain, it opened its mouth to reveal a large cannon pointing at the team.

"COVER!" shouted the Commander as all three combatants dove behind the low walls just in time to avoid being obliterated by an energy wave.

"EDI! That damn thing is still up and trying to kill us! What do we do now?" asked Shepard.

"Data insufficient to point out a critical structural weakness. However, given its size and resilience, and if its humanoid shape is any indication of its internal structure, aiming for the ocular sockets should provide the highest odds of success in effectively damaging it."

"The eyes it is. Jack, Miranda! Soften them up so I can deliver the killing blow."

Right on cue, both biotic women got up to their feet and ran away from the commander, launching blast after blast of Warp power into the monstrosity's face to weaken its armor and draw its attention away from Shepard.

The strategy worked well enough. Too well actually. After barely a few hits, the Reaper turned towards them and screamed once more as it brought up one of its arms and smashed their platform from underneath. The two women were sent flying, brutally landing in a pile of junk on another platform further away from the abomination as the one they were running on a second before kept flipping higher into the air until it crashed into the ceiling high above them. The violent impact shattered the platform and destroyed the machinery hanging from the ceiling, reducing everything to a deadly shower of debris soon to bury both ex-convict and her teammate.

Time seemed to slow for Jack as she opened her eyes and took in their situation. Shepard was still facing the Reaper, putting away his rifle to reach for another weapon. He hadn't seen them, didn't know they would be dead before he could do anything about it. The brunette woman next to her was still on her knees, dizzy from their flight. One of her ankles was twisted in a way it shouldn't be. Even if she got up, she probably couldn't run very fast. Definitely not fast enough to avoid the incoming death from above. She then considered her own self. For all she could tell, she had come out of the flight unharmed but she was still exhausted. She could tell the Red Drive had reached its limit too and every use of her powers now caused her brain to hurt, as if she was forcing a large nail into her very skull. The Salarian had warned about side effects, but it's not like she could afford to think about them at this point. And finally, the field of debris closing in on them to seal their fate. There were probably hundreds of pieces in there, some of them massive too. Jack had never been very good at grasping moving objects with her biotics, let alone this many and moving at such speed. If she boosted her own barriers and ran for it, she could probably survive. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not anymore. Not after all this.

Jack's time was running out. In a few seconds the platform's wreckage would reach them. Mentally cursing Shepard and his precious little genetically perfect second in command for having made her soft like this, she made up her mind.

Raising both her arms above her head, Jack grit her teeth to fight through the agony as she instantly created a powerful dome of barrier several layers thick around the both of them.

"_Let's see if I got this right_" she though with a little smile as she flung her arms down in front of her and sent the layers of the dome spinning around them at outrageous speed. A heartbeat later, the first debris came down on them and were sent flying all around as the rotating layers of the barrier field violently slapped them aside. What could only have been a few seconds seemed like hours to Jack as she stood there with her arms now stretched on each side, giving everything she had left and more to keep the dome spinning around them and scattering more and more pieces of metal around their platform.

This intense effort took all of Jack's focus, and so she couldn't even see what hit her then. The first sign telling her something had gone wrong was when the agony suddenly shifted from her head to her right arm. Then she noticed the dome had come down. Then her eyes went dark and she fell to the ground on her back. She knew she was drifting into unconsciousness and welcomed it at last. The pain was gone now, mostly. She just felt a small sting in head skull where her L5x implant was. It was probably scrapped at this point, which would explain the warm liquid she could feel dripping down her ear.

Oh well, she couldn't help herself from thinking, at least she had gone out being herself, i.e. fucking awesome. She could still vaguely hear smaller debris hitting the ground but she knew her little trick had worked. She chuckled mentally. Strongest biotic on the ship my ass! She was the strongest biotic in the whole god damned galaxy.

Just before Jack's mind went completely black, she felt a powerful wave of heat and light, followed by a horrible sound. And then, nothing.


	5. Ch5 Bedside Bell

Author's Note: I actualy finished this chapter quite a few weeks ago, but then got a new job and a new home so forgot to beta-read it (myself) and post it. Next upload won't be an actual chapter, just a summary of the first 5 chapters. I understand some people read stories mostly for the smut part, and I don't judge it. So nice guy that I am will put a summary for them right before the skin starts showing alot, and also of course for you awesome readers who have been following my story. You truly are the motivation that keeps me writing, even if it's slowly ;)

* * *

**Inventive use of Mass Effect fields**

**Chapter Five: Bedside Bell**

"You've got to be kidding me.. I'm STILL not dead?" was the first thing to cross Jack's mind. Soon followed by "Fucking ouch…"

When she finally opened her eyes, it took the ex-convict a moment to adjust to the bright light, but she could soon recognize the Med-bay of the Normandy where the elderly doc had patched her up countless times since she hoped on Shepard's crazy train. She was lying on her back on the bed furthest from the door, an IV plugged into her left arm, and covered by the usual light sheet and an ugly gown. Considering her usual attire, even these minimal pieces of cloth felt like a full-body armor to Jack.

Still a little dizzy and blinded by the light, the shaved woman managed with great effort to sit up, and searched her wrecked body for the source of her throbbing pain. Her right arm. The sight of it brought back vague, painful memories from the Collector base. She remembered the Red Drive and its effects. She remembered the wannabe reaper monstrosity and Shepard bringing it down while she fought Collector weaklings. Smiling a little, she then remembered the Commander standing up to the Illusive Prick, and the cheerleader telling her boss to go fuck off. She remembered flying through the air like a ragdoll, and crashing. And finally, she remembered a falling doom, and doing something just fucking stupid. And then… she couldn't remember anything more. Question was, thought a frowning Jack, how had she gone from dying on a rotting piece of shit base in the middle of fucking nowhere, to still being alive who knows how long later in the Normandy's med-bay, with her right arm strapped immobile and most definitely sporting more scar than it used to.

Unable to make any sense of it and with her other limbs apparently mostly unarmed, Jack examined the rest of the large room. After any given mission, the med-bay would usually be filled with injured team and crew members, but right now it was just as empty as it had been after the abduction. This meant she must have been out cold for a few days.

Still scanning the room, Jack's sight came to rest on a data-slate lying on the bed next to hers. It couldn't be much of anything other than her med-record. The tattooed woman extended her left arm towards it, and tried to pull it to her with biotic. The data-slate barely moved an inch. It could have moved a mile though that Jack wouldn't have noticed for she was too busy screaming her throat out in brutally sudden agonizing pain. The second she stimulated her brain's biotic node, she could swear someone hiding under her bed had come out to drive an axe into her skull. The worst of it only lasted for the second she had tried to use her biotics, but left a behind an excruciating afterglow that left her curled up and shaking on the bed.

Barely a minute later, Jack heard the med-bay's door opening, and multiple sounds of running coming towards her. With her conscious mind too busy fighting the agony, instinct quickly took over and sent her into panic mode. This was obviously a new Cerberus facility. Her right arm had been hurt during combat with another inmate, and she had just awoken after yet another surgical intervention to her precious little brain. Her crippled biotics and the pain their stimulation brought were the results of a botched job by their stupid doctors, and those running footsteps were guards coming in to take her back to her cell, probably raping her along the way for good measure. It all made sense now, of course.

Before the guards could reach her, Jack quickly sat back up, ripped the IV out of her arm and jumped off her bed, intent on using the IV's pole to knock their heads off before escaping from the labs. Her instinct was dumbfounded though when the shaved woman landed on her face rather than her feet. Just as it realized her legs were limp for some reason, it felt a small sting on her ass. And then everything went black, again.

When Jack next awoke, she was relieved to find the pain had left her head.

"Why good morning Jack" came the voice of doctor Chakwas. "How are you feeling today?"

The tattooed woman began her answer by grunting and bringing a hand to her face to shield her eyes from the annoyingly bright light.

"I dunno… Like I took a dive to the face with my Amp ripped out and my arm holding by duct tape?"

Jack hadn't expected the Commander's laugh to welcome her answer. His light chuckle was enough to send her heart racing and her eyes wide open. _Damn_, she thought as she willed herself to recover from the surprise of his presence at her bedside. Good thing she still had her hand in her face. Hopefully the beat her heart had skipped hadn't showed too much on the monitor.

"I'd say that sounds about right Jack" he simply replied.

When the ex-convict finally moved her hand away, she found the Commander staring at her with an honest smile. The sight of his now stress-free face brought warmth inside of her, and she was glad to know he had survived the Collector base as well. In the end, she couldn't help the corner of her own lips from rising a little. The elderly doctor was standing next to him, data-slate in hand, also smiling_. Old hag must have seen the spike in my heart rate, damn her_. A few feet behind the both of them stood a couple of obviously frightened goons. It was their job and duty to stand guard in the med-bay while it was occupied, but they knew all too well they couldn't do a damn thing to stop _her_ if she went wild.

"I asked doctor Chakwas here to call me before waking you up", continued Shepard. "She insures me your vitals have been strong and stable for the last few days, and that you'll finally be ready to get out of here tomorrow. Just in time too."

"_Last few days? Finally? Just in time? Just how long have I been out and what the fuck is going on?"_

Shepard could easily see the confusion on the shaved woman's face and chuckled once again.

"I know this is a lot to process Jack, and don't worry. I made sure I'd have time to talk you through it all. It's the least I can do", he quickly said. "But first things first. Doctor Chakwas?"

"Yes", began the old woman after clearing her throat. "Before the Commander debriefs you Jack, I want to go over a few important medical points with you. I'll start by answering the most obvious question: sixteen days. You've been asleep for sixteen days. After seeing the extant of your wounds upon your return to the Normandy, doctor Solus and I decided it was best we put you in an artificial coma for the better part of your recovery. It made the surgeries easier, and spared you the pain. And indeed, if we forget last week's little incident, this made your recovery very successful."

The english woman took a short pause to let this sink in. Two weeks. It wasn't the first time Jack lost some time. After all, she had spent several months frozen up on that god damn Blue Suns prison. But still, it was never a fun feeling to know the galaxy had gone on moving without you. She couldn't begin to imagine how Shepard had felt waking up after two years. The thought of this made her look his way. Always the flawless commander, the handsome man was busy pouring her a glass of water, which she accepted with a nod as the doctor resumed talking.

"Now about those critical injuries", she said. "Everyone who came back from that dreaded place did so with their fair share of cuts, bruises and gun wounds; but you were on another level. My, for a minute we actually thought we were going to lose you too. But the Commander here and Miss Lawson wouldn't let that happen, and neither would I dear. The first thing we had to patch up was your right arm. It was… for lack of better words, a bloody mess. In the end, it took a few surgeries and some cybernetics to save it. Even when you walk out of here, you should keep wearing those bands you have on it right now for a few more weeks. They'll keep you from making any sudden movements and straining it too much while your body finishes incorporating your new implants."

Jack put the glass down and looked at her arm. "_Implants eh?"_ Her arm _looked_ normal. A little less ink. A little more scars. She had to really concentrate to feel the metal pieces grafted to her bones and muscles. And even then, she knew that was probably just her mind playing tricks. What did they call it? Something about feeling them just because she knew she had them? Whatever.

"Next was your biotic interface", resumed the doctor, pulling Jack from her thoughts. "Now dear, I know it's going to be hard, but please try NOT to use your biotic abilities right now."

It was true. It took Jack every ounce of self-control she could muster not to instinctively rise against this interdiction and try out her biotics right there and then.

"The Commander and Mordin are both playing stupid with me and won't tell me what happened back there", she continued on a slightly irritated tone. "But whatever it was, it completely fried your L5x Amp. If it had been anything less than top of the line, it would probably have fried your entire biotic interface and lobe as well, effectively killing you in the process. You should consider yourself very lucky young lady. As it was, we were able to remove your old Amp and heal the interface. It's also a good thing doctor Solus secretly kept a copy of your implant's multicore design. With the data, we were able to fabricate a new one during your recovery, and we'll be able to install it tonight or tomorrow, if you're feeling up for it. Until then however, I must insist once again: DON'T try and use your powers. It will only result in terrible, terrible pain." Lowering her data-slate and handing it to Jack, the elder woman finally said "The rest of your injuries healed long ago and aren't worth mentioning at this point. You'll find all the details of your surgeries on this slate and, most importantly, the fine-tuning specs for your new L5x Amp. Mordin thought it would be best for you to review them before the surgery, in case you wanted to adjust anything. I'll leave you with the Commander now, and bring you some paperwork to fill out later."

With this, she began to walk away towards the guards but then stopped and turned back.

"Oh, and Jack" she added, performing a surprisingly neat military salute. "Since you were already asleep back when this was all people would talk about aboard the ship; it would be my honor, on the behalf of the entire crew of the Normandy SR-2, to thank you for all your efforts in saving not only us, but so many more humans from the dark fate the Collectors had planned for them." And then she was out the door with the goons, leaving her alone. With Shepard. And the awkward silence.

The silence lasted almost a full agonizingly long minute, with both of them just staring at Jack's glass as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, before Shepard opened his mouth.

"So…" he brilliantly began.

"So…", Jack continued with flawless diction. "What the fuck happened back there? Last thing I remember is saving both your asses. And now I wake up from a two week coma? You got a pretty fucking big gap to fill here Shepard."

The Commander smiled and looked her in the eyes, happy to find the injuries apparently hadn't changed her.

"Well Jack, I think we both have a bit of explaining to do there. Don't bother telling me about that Red Drive crap. I squeezed all the info about that out of Mordin" he replied on an increasingly grave tone.

Suddenly, Jack found her glass quite interesting again, confused by her own submissiveness. If she wanted to shoot up crap, it was her own damn business. And yet there was just something about him, something in her that didn't want to be judged by him.

"And?..." she simply ventured.

"And I don't appreciate that kind of dangerous drugs on my team Jack, nor secrecy."

At this point, Jack was staring at her glass so intensely she'd swear she could see the water evaporating.

"This being said", he then added on a lighter tone, "I don't consider myself your boss either. In the end, I trust my team to know their own limits and capabilities, and the decision to take it was yours. And seeing as you did probably save our lives back there, I'm willing to forget it happened. I just wish you would have told us about it Jack, trusted us to have your back if something bad happened."

"I… I do trust you Shepard. It's just… I can't-"

"It's alright Jack", he cut the ex-convict as he put a hand on hers. "I know how you tick by now".

This made the shaved woman smile lightly, and she was finally able to lift her eyes from her glass to meet his stare. He smiled back.

"Now", he resumed on a lighter tone, "before I get into what's been going on while you were asleep, I really want to know YOUR version of what happened back there. I mean, one moment both of you are tearing that monster's face apart with warp blasts and I'm prepping my Cain, and the next Miranda is crawling to your destroyed body in a pile of rubble. Miranda told me what she saw you do, or _thinks_ she saw you do anyways. So you tell me now, what the hell _did_ you do Jack?"

"Something stupid?"

"Ah! I'll say! But that something stupid managed to save the both of you from certain death, so you can be sure it has my attention."

Jack took a deep breath. She hadn't expected having to explain it. Hadn't even really expected it to work in the first place.

"Alright well, you know those fancy new Kinetic shields you got installed on the ship before we went through the Relay?"

Shepard nodded. "The multicore CBT yeah."

"Well… _that's_ what I did. When all the little geeks were down in engineering setting up the gear and hooking it up to the core, I overheard them talking about the technology and its theory; how it worked. And it got me thinking: if a powerful enough ship can protect itself better with that kind of technique, why not a powerful enough biotic?"

Shepard was silent. Then: "You're serious?"

"Why the hell would I make something like that up?"

"Holy… No wonder your biotic amp was fried. I may not know much about biotics, but I can easily see how much juice that must have taken. How is it even possible?"

This made the shaved woman chuckle.

"Honestly? I wasn't sure it was", she simply answered. "I mean sure, I'd been practicing with multi-layer barriers and rotating ones whenever I got the chance on missions but still. I don't think it would have been possible at all without the Red Drive and my custom Amp. And even then, it didn't work perfectly remember?" she added, lifting her right arm. "Your turn now Shepard. How the fuck am I still alive?"

"Fair enough" the Commander said as he got himself a glass of water as well. "After I nuked that monster for good and came looking for you girls, I found you laying unconscious in your own blood. Miranda was already over you, trying to stabilize you. Your right arm Jack, it was a real mess. Sure, that big beam broke your barrier. But if it hadn't been slowed by it before hitting you, it would surely have just cut off your arm clean. As it happened, it was still broken in multiple spots, with the bone splinters piecing the skin all over and having cut your artery.

"Miranda applied a vast amount of medi-gel on it in order to restrain the bleeding and ease the pain, but we still had an exploding base to run out of, with always more Collector foot soldiers trying to stop us from escaping. At first, I tried transporting you, but there were too many enemies to fend off. So Miranda acted out of line again, and injected you with a massive dose of adrenaline. You jerked to life instantly and managed to run with us back to the ship on your own.

"Once we got to the ship and made our escape however, you collapsed again. That's when Mordin noticed all the blood coming out of your ear, and realized your arm was far from the only major injury you had. Doctor Chakwas told you most of the rest earlier."

Jack let all this sink in. She had absolutely no memory of the escape; she must have been a complete zombie at that point, only moving thanks to the adrenaline rush.

"As for the rest of the team", soon resumed the Commander, "most of them made it out without any major injuries. The only other casualty you might care to know about, besides Tali, was Thane. According to Garrus, he wasn't able to generate a proper barrier after the exhaustion of the passage through the swarm tunnel, and died in the first few minutes of their stand. A few other crew members you wouldn't know died after returning to the ship. Apparently we didn't save them all fast enough, and some had already been injected with a first dose of whatever abominable concoction they used to dissolve those poor colonists. Despite our best efforts, they died within a few hours from multiple massive organ breakdowns.

"Once every one that did make it had received proper medical attention, we held a memorial to the honor of the deceased in the hangar bay. Ever since then, we've been going around the Galaxy to hand over their remains to their respective families, and tell them first hand of the importance of their sacrifices. Two days ago we finished our trip at the Citadel, to give away Thane's body to his son. Now we're back in the Terminus systems, and we'll be docked at Omega by tomorrow morning."

"Omega?" suddenly asked Jack. "Why? I thought you'd want to kick it back in a cozy Presidium resort for a while after all that crap."

"Hopefully we'll get to that someday soon Jack. But for now, the entire crew of the Normandy has received an official invitation of the kind you can't just turn down", replied Shepard. "The _Queen of Omega_, Aria T'Loak herself, has graciously invited us all to celebrate in the reserved VIP section of her club. Apparently she wants to express her gratitude to us for riding her of her disquieting neighbors. Remember when I said you woke up just in time? The party is tomorrow night, and I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to miss it."

"Shiiit, really?" was all that the ex-convict could find to reply. "A VIP party in Afterlife… You never do things half assed do you Shepard eh?"

"Yeah well, everyone's pretty excited about it all right. Most of them never set foot on Omega for anything else than refueling, let alone the VIP floor of any club. After two weeks of meeting grieving families, I think it'll be good for the- "

"Commander" interrupted the cold voice of the AI as its holo-self lit up next the med-bay's door.

"Um, yes EDI?"

"I'm sorry for interrupting you Commander", she…. it…. whatever continued "but Yeoman Chambers was very adamant I reminded you of your regular post-traumatic appointment with her in 5 minutes."

"Oh, right. Thank you EDI, it… slipped my mind."

"Of course Commander" and then the blue holo was gone again, leaving them alone once more.

"Kelly's been holding group therapies with the crew ever since we've come back" explained the commander as he turned back to the shaved woman still sitting in her bed. "She also insists on doing regular, private sessions with the team members who've seen the worst of it. Forgot all about mine today. It looks like I'll have to end our conversation here for now. Besides, I'm sure you want to rest in order to be fit for your biotic Amp implant as soon as possible, right?"

"Uh, yeah" Jack managed, doing her best to hide her disappointment. "You're probably right. Anyways, I got some calibrations to do remember?" she added, lifting the data-slate still on her lap.

This made Shepard chuckle. "You sure do. Well then, I guess I should go. I'll see you later Jack."

"See ya Shepard."

And then he was gone too. Jack spent a few minutes staring at the glowy green symbol of the med-bay's door before finally looking down at the data-slate. So the Salarian somehow stole a copy of her Amp's design? Sneaky Fucker. Then again, what else would you expect from an ex-STG legend.

The specs were all wrong for her though. These were all just the stock numbers. Jack had a few long hours of adjustments to do before it would be ready for implantation.

Then she'd gently take whatever the doc gave her to sleep good. Then she'd finally get her amp back tomorrow morning. Then she'd rock the Afterlife's VIP crowd.

And then she'd rock Shepard's bed.


End file.
